


Just a Ficlit

by fineandwittie



Category: The Last Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Gen, He gets to confront Aethelflaed about what she and edward did, I needed to get this off my chest after rewatching the finale, S4E10, Season 4 Episode 10, Season 4 Finale, a little ranty, but my goal in life has apparently become, giving uhtred a chance to stick it to the people who hurt him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 05:07:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30050361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fineandwittie/pseuds/fineandwittie
Summary: Aethelflaed just wants a chance to explain to Uhtred why she'd agreed to the trade. Uhtred is not willing to listen.
Relationships: Aethelflaed Lady of Mercia/Uhtred of Bebbanburg
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	Just a Ficlit

**Author's Note:**

> Unproofread and unbeta'd.

“Uhtred? May I have a word with you? Please?” It was Aethelflaed’s voice, though Uhtred did not look up from his task. 

He simply sat, rewrapping the hilt of his sword in fresh leather, eyes down and back tense.

“Uhtred, please.”

Uhtred inhaled, long and slow. When he did finally meet her eyes, his had gone cold, flat and empty where they would usually be warm and filled with love. She flinched from it.

“I have nothing to say to you, Lady.”

“Uhtred, please. Be reasonable. Stiorra wishes to go with him. How could—“

Uhtred snorted, his face twisting with disdain. Aethelflaed fell silent. “And you knew that? You knew that she would wish to accompany the man who had held her captive for a month or more? Not every Danish kidnapping ends with a love story like yours did, Lady. You had no guarantee that he had not raped her or beat her. You had no idea she liked him. You did not care either way.”

“Uhtred, that’s not—“

“It is true.” He was on his feet now, blazing with anger under the midday sun. “It is true and you know it to be true. I was willing to give up everything I’d ever wanted to protect you and your daughter from treatment exactly like this. You knew I had no wish to rule in Mercia, but I was willing to. So that you and Aelfwynn would not be sold to the highest bidder or traded away in a bargain that you could not control. When you found the idea of me on the throne so repugnant, I found away to give it to you instead. And this. This is how you repay me. With such a betrayal. Aethelflaed, you are no better than any of the rest. You are no better than your dead husband. You think yourself above the petty affairs of men. You think yourself the smartest person in the room, when you are simply a greedy monarch playing games with the lives of others.”

Her eyes filled with tears, but they did not spill. “What would you have had me do, then? Let the bargain fall apart?”

Uhtred scoffed. “Sigtryggr was not willing to let the bargaining collapse, not simply for one girl. He might like her. He might love her even. But he is not willing to gamble the future of his people away on her. If you had simply asked me, I would have told you that. Or, if I am wrong and he was, you could have sent for me and for Stiorra. You could have included us both in the negotiation and asked for our consent to it.”

She looked stricken now. That course had obviously never occurred to her.

“But you did not. You did as any man would do. You traded away the life of a woman because it was expedient. I would have thought that you, of all people, would understand. That you would _care_ , but clearly I was wrong in that.”

“My father—“ She tried, reached out her hand to him.

“You are not Alfred. You will never be Alfred. So do not pretend that this is what Alfred would have done. For he would not have been stupid enough to trap us in this situation to begin with.”

“But if he had, he would traded away Stiorra without a thought.” Aethelflaed cried, righteous in her certainty.

Uhtred exhaled a huffed breath through his nose and stared at her. “Would he? Perhaps. But the difference between Alfred and you, Aethelflaed, is that he would not pretend that he regretted it. He would not weep and beg forgiveness for doing what he must to preserve England. He would simply do it. Unapologetically because it was what needed doing. The difference is that Alfred was never given away in a bargain to secure a Kingdom. Alfred never felt the pain of that, the fear, the isolation. But you did. And you made the choice to do it to my daughter.” He paused, jaw clenching and fire in his eyes now. “And for that, I will never forgive you.”

He turned, sheathing his sword and scooping up the frayed leather that had been discarded from its hilt. Without a backward glance or another word, he walked away from her and the wound it left in her chest was worse than when she’d sworn that oath of chastity. Worse even than when she’d watched Erik die.

Worse, because she knew that this time, she had no one to blame but herself.


End file.
